Written Answers Tuesday 3 July 2007

Scottish Executive

Education

Kenneth Gibson (Cunninghame North) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will ensure that intelligent design theory is prohibited from being taught in school science classes.

Maureen Watt: The curriculum in Scotland is not based on statutory prescription. It is for schools, in the light of the curriculum framework within which they operate, to determine how best they organise the syllabus.

  However, I can confirm that there are no plans to include intelligent design as part of the Curriculum for Excellence review. There is no evidence from HM Inspectorate of Education to suggest intelligent design is being taught in school science classes.

Higher Education

Murdo Fraser (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the total number of higher education students and their share of the total population in each year since the Reformation, broken down by educational institution.

Fiona Hyslop: Formal statistics of participation in higher education are not available for the whole of this period. Nevertheless, the history of Scotland is of a country that has been a world leader in educational innovation and participation over many centuries and it is the ambition of this Government to build upon that strong foundation.

Student Finance

Christina McKelvie (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of graduates from Scottish universities were liable for the graduate endowment in each year of its operation.

Fiona Hyslop: In the past three years of operation, the graduate endowment has been payable by the following percentages of students:

  2005 - 14% of students who graduated were liable to pay the endowment.

  2006 - 56% of students who graduated were liable to pay the endowment.

  2007 -52% of students who graduated were liable to pay the endowment.

  Figures provided by the Student Awards Agency for Scotland as at 1 June 2007.

Student Finance

Christina McKelvie (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many, and what percentage of, graduates from each of the three cohorts liable to pay the graduate endowment fee paid it in cash and what the figures are across the three cohorts.

Fiona Hyslop: The number of students who paid in cash, the percentage of the liable group they represent and the value collected in cash for the three cohorts is:

  

Year
No. of Students
% of Cohort
Value (£)


2005
249
25%
498,030


2006
2,621
32%
5,248,608


2007
3,470
29%
7,031,284



  Figures provided by the Student Awards Agency for Scotland as at 1 June 2007.

Student Finance

Christina McKelvie (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many, and what percentage of, graduates from each of the three cohorts liable to pay the graduate endowment fee paid part in cash and part by extending their student loans and what the figures are across the three cohorts.

Fiona Hyslop: The number of students who paid part cash/part loan, the percentage of the liable group they represent and the value collected part cash/ part loan for the three cohorts is:

  

Year
No. of Students
% of Cohort
Value (£)


2005
25
2%
50,000


2006
124
1%
248,270


2007
202
1%
409,894



  Figures provided by the Student Awards Agency for Scotland as at 1 June 2007.

Student Finance

Christina McKelvie (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many, and what percentage of, graduates from each of the three cohorts liable to pay the graduate endowment fee paid by extending their student loans and what the figures are across the three cohorts.

Fiona Hyslop: The number of students who have opted to extend their student loan, the percentage of the liable group they represent and the value for those students who have opted to extend their student loan for the three cohorts is:

  

Year
No. of Students
% of Cohort
Value (£)


2005
702
70%
1,404,030


2006
5,204
64%
10,429,170


2007
6,980
58%
14,157,988



  Figures provided by the Student Awards Agency for Scotland as at 1 June 2007.

Student Finance

Christina McKelvie (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many, and what percentage of, graduates from each of the three cohorts liable to pay the graduate endowment fee are in debt recovery and what the figures are across the three cohorts.

Fiona Hyslop: The number of students who are currently in debt recovery, the percentage of the liable group they represent and the value for those students who are currently in debt recovery for the three cohorts is:

  

Year
No. of Students
% of Cohort
Value (£)


2005
18
2%
36,000


2006
183
3%
366,870


2007
0
0%
0



  Figures provided by the Student Awards Agency for Scotland as at 1 June 2007.

  It should be noted that no students for the 2007 cohort are currently in debt recovery, however, 1,431 (12%) of students from this cohort have still to respond to the Student Awards Agency about how they wish to pay and these students will be moved to debt recovery in July.

Student Finance

Christina McKelvie (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many, and what percentage of, graduates from each of the three cohorts liable to pay the graduate endowment fee have had their fee written off and what the figures are across the three cohorts.

Fiona Hyslop: The number of students who have had their fee written off, the percentage of the liable group they represent and the value for those students who have had their fee written off for the three cohorts is:

  

Year
No. of Students
% of Cohort
Value (£)


2005
7
0.7%
14,000


2006
12
0.2%
24,030


2007
0
0.0%
0



  Figures provided by the Student Awards Agency for Scotland as at 1 June 2007.

Student Finance

Christina McKelvie (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the total graduate endowment fee charged has been and how much (a) was paid in cash, (b) was paid through extending student loans, (c) was paid through a combination of cash and extension of student loans, (d) is currently outstanding and (e) has been written off, also broken down by year of operation.

Fiona Hyslop: The information requested in this question is given in the following table which shows what the total graduate endowment fee charged has been and how much (a) was paid in cash, (b) was paid through extending student loans, (c) was paid through a combination of cash and extension of student loans, (d) is currently outstanding and (e) has been written off, also broken down by year of operation.

  

Year
Cash 
(a)
Loans 
(b)
Part Cash /Loan (c)
Outstanding
(d)
Written Off 
(e)
Total


2005
£ 498,030 
£ 1,404,030 
 £ 50,000 
 £ 36,000 
 £ 14,000 
 £ 2,002,060 


2006
£ 5,248,608 
£ 10,429,170 
 £ 248,270 
 £ 366,870 
 £ 24,030 
 £ 16,316,948 


2007
£ 7,031,284 
 £ 14,157,988 
 £ 409,894 
 £ 2,913,074 
 £ - 
 £ 24,512,240 


Total
£ 12,777,922
£ 25,991,188
£ 708,164
£ 3,315,944
£ 38,030
£ 42,831,248



  Figures provided by the Student Awards Agency for Scotland as at 1 June 2007.

Student Finance

Christina McKelvie (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the total outstanding debt is on student loans to pay the graduate endowment and what the total repayment figure is for such loans.

Fiona Hyslop: The combined outstanding debt held as student loans for those students who opted to fully or partly add their liability to their student loan for the three cohorts is £26,306,720.  The total amount repaid by students to the Student Loans Company (SLC) for graduate endowment loan debt is £57,000.  This is a correction to the earlier answer to this parliamentary question given by Fiona Hyslop MSP on 17 July 2007. I have written to Ms McKelvie to say that the Students Award Agency for Scotland (SAAS) has apologised for their mistake. My letter has been lodged with the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 43380).